Are you Thin or Skinny Fat? Your BMI is "Normal"? So why are you at risk of Type II Diabetese?
- dannidobsonpt
- Feb 14, 2020
- 5 min read
Updated: Aug 24, 2020
Thin or Skinny Fat is when your weight and BMI are considered to be in the "normal" range for your sex, age and height but your % body fat is higher than it should be.... (has more fat and not enough muscle recommended for optimal health).
So what? The charts say that I am okay!.... well the charts are wrong or misleading at best! They are guides and do not take into account the individual. That is why understanding your body composition is so important.
People just assume that if their weight and/or BMI is normal, they have nothing to worry about. BMI Charts are a general guide, not individualised...BMI’s usefulness in assessing weight and health is a very, very broad brush.
For example, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), if your BMI is between 18.5 and 24.99, you are considered to be in the normal range for health. So if you have a BMI of 22, you’re automatically okay? Well, maybe!
The WHO* has set these ranges, but they qualify them with the following:
"However, it should be considered as a rough guide because it may not correspond to the same body fat percentage in different individuals".
What Causes Thin or Skinny Fat
This condition is caused from a combination of Crash Diets, Poor Diet, Long and slow Cardio only and not enough weights to build muscle. (There are some other factors related to genetics etc).
Diet alone:
I have said this before. Losing weight from restricting calories will work. If calculated correctly to be less than your body needs to maintain itself you will lose FAT AND MUSCLE. That calorie deficit should be a balanced diet though. Not full of processed foods and sugar but within your calorie count. Better still use MACROS (30% Protein, 20% FAT, 50% Carbohydrate) to ensure your body gets what it needs is a good starting point.
Even with a healthy balanced diet, when you lose muscle your body needs less calories just to stay the same. So as you burn up muscle and fat you have to cut calories further to be the slave to the scales. So you cut even more calories and get further fat and muscle loss .... see where we are going here? This cycle results in a plateau where you stop losing weight and are hungry a lot of the time! Worse still, you may start gaining weight (it will be fat gained only) and then you give up.
You now have less muscle than you started with and as you revert back to eat as you did before (because that diet didn't work), you will put on weight as fat. If this diet cycle goes on you are getting yourself into a very bad place. Very low muscle mass, high fat, ....skinny fat.
Long and Slow cardio:
Long and slow cardio Is better than no exercise at all but this type of exercise is not building lean muscle. It is just adding to the amount of deficit you get from just dieting. This means your body needs even more energy so it metabolises more muscle and fat from your body. Dieting and cardio alone will get faster weight loss results but you are losing that important muscle.
None or not enough weights to build or maintain muscle:
Very light weights and lots of reps is the same as long and slow cardio. Unless you are shocking a muscle to grow and have enough protein in that diet to build it, or at least maintain what you have, you are not helping yourself. You are possibly changing your muscle type to slow twitch endurance muscle and not building. (perhaps I should write an article on muscle types?).
What are the dangers of being Thin or Skinny Fat?
The dangers are exactly the same as being "over weight". The reason is that the majority of the fat when you are "Obese Normal Weight" is "visceral fat". Carrying a high amount of visceral fat is known to be associated with insulin resistance, which can lead to glucose intolerance and type 2 diabetes.
We all have a certain amount of visceral fat but those of us with a larger quantity of visceral fat may be exposed to increased risks of:
Type 2 diabetes
Heart Disease
Abnormal Cholesterol
Breast cancer
Colorectal cancer
Alzheimer's disease
What do I do if I suspect I am Thin/Skinny Fat?
Always speak with your GP if you suspect that something is wrong. If you suspect that your are thin/skinny fat or "normal weigh obese" go and check. They (GP) will be able to take some blood tests to check insulin resistance, liver function etc and can refer you for a body composition scan. This will ensure that you know for sure and can take action to remedy it.
Lift weights and build muscle mass! The message here is that you must lift weights and build muscle. I do mean lift weights, Barbells, Squats, Deadlifts etc....not tiny dumbbells, ankle weights or isolation machines!
To build muscle it (the muscle) must adapt to strains placed on it. It needs stimulus that says to your muscles "hey you need to be thicker, stronger and bigger to lift these weights". I can show you how to do this if you want some help?
I covered reducing your body fat % in my last article. Concentrate on that only, forget the numbers on the scales. Yes have a deficit calorie plan, but eat healthy whole foods, eat enough protein to build and repair your muscles and stick to your MACROS (remember that article? link below).
If you are worried that building muscle might make you look bulky instead of skinny, don’t! Why do some people think this? Muscle is much denser than fat, fact. Muscle/kg is smaller in volume than fat, FACT. This mean that if you weighed exactly the same as you do now, but you had more muscle but reduced your fat total. You will be smaller in volume and so actually appear thinner.
Hire a personal Trainer like me!
Being serious for one minute. The reason many people are in this condition is that they may have always been slim. Always ate and drank what they wanted. Never exercised or felt the need to. Or are a constant yo-yo dieter. Until one day they wake up one and realise they are a bit bigger, their clothes don't fit as well as they used to.... if you have never exercised, or followed a healthy whole food diet where do you start? What should you do? Search Google? Look at YouTube videos? There are lots of information on these channels, some right, many wrong, prescribing the wrong things....no view on form and safety. Is the source of this information certified? Is it just a hobby turned into a business, selling programmes and subscriptions to workouts?
Hire a Certified Professional.
I am a certified Personal Trainer. That means I have trained, taken exams and undergone strict rigour before I am allowed to train anyone. I provide individual support for my clients. No matter what their starting point is or end result goal. Start by contacting me for a chat. I will help you to exercise correctly and safely. Show you how to build lean muscle, guide you to what foods to eat and show you how to be confident exercising going forward.
I hope you enjoyed this article? If you did tell me and your friends! Like the article, Like my page and Share with your family and friends.
Danni X
Contact me by e-mail: dannidobsonpt@outlook.com
Call/Text 07811 888394
Facebook @Dannidobsonpt
MACROS ARTICLE: https://www.dannidobsonpt.com/post/fat-loss-muscle-gain-calculate-your-macros-what-are-they-an-easy-way-to-a-balanced-healthy-diet
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